There are no gun-free, safe zones

By John R. Lott Jr.

The tragedy of the attack on Friday at Case Western Reserve University
left one person murdered and two injured. What can be learned from the
attack? Some take the attack as confirmation that guns should be banned
from certain areas such as schools and universities.

The attack on Friday took place in an area where guns were already
banned, a so-called "gun-free safe zone." Yet, suppose you or your
family are being stalked by a criminal who intends on harming you.
Would you feel safer putting a sign in front of your home saying "This
Home is a Gun-Free Zone"?

It is pretty obvious why we don't put these signs up. As with many
other gun laws, law-abiding citizens, not would-be criminals, would
obey the sign. Instead of creating a safe zone for victims, it leaves
victims defenseless and creates a safe zone for those intent on causing
harm.

Many Americans have learned this lesson the hard way. In 1985, just
eight states had the most liberal right-to-carry laws - laws that
automatically grant permits once applicants pass a criminal background
check, pay their fees and, when required, complete a training class.
Today the total is 35 states. My new book, "The Bias Against Guns,"
examines multiple-victim public shootings in the United States from
1977 to 1999 and finds that when states passed right-to-carry laws,
these attacks fell by 60 percent. Deaths and injuries from
multiple-victim public shootings fell on average by 78 percent.

No other gun control law had any beneficial effect. Indeed,
right-to-carry laws were the only policy that consistently reduced
these attacks.

To the extent attacks still occurred in right-to-carry states, they
overwhelmingly happened in the special places within those states where
concealed handguns were banned. The impact of right-to-carry laws on
multiple-victim public shootings is much larger than on other crimes,
for a simple reason. Increasing the probability that someone will be
able to protect themselves, increases deterrence. Even when any single
person might have a small probability of having a concealed handgun,
the probability that at least someone will is very high.

Unfortunately, the concealed handgun legislation now being considered
for Ohio has a long list of so-called gun-free safe zones.

People's reaction to the horrific events displayed on TV is
understandable, but the more than 2 million times each year that
Americans use guns defensively are never discussed - even though this
is five times as often as the 450,000 times that guns are used to
commit crimes over the last couple of years. Seldom do cases make the
news where public shootings are stopped or mothers use guns to prevent
their children from being kidnapped. Few would know that a third of the
public school shootings were stopped by citizens with guns before
uniformed police could arrive.

Last year, the morning and evening news broadcasts on the three main
television networks carried almost 200,000 words on contemporaneous gun
crime stories. By comparison, not one segment featured a civilian using
a gun to stop a crime. Newspapers are not much better.

Police are extremely important in deterring crime, but they almost
always arrive after the crime has been committed. Annual surveys of
crime victims in the United States continually show that, when
confronted by a criminal, people are safest if they have a gun. Just as
the threat of arrest and prison can deter criminals from committing a
crime, so can the fact that victims can defend themselves.

Gun control advocates conveniently ignore that the nations with the
highest homicide rates have gun bans. Studies, such as one conducted
recently by Jeff Miron at Boston University, which examined 44
countries, find that stricter gun control laws tend to lead to higher
homicide rates. Russia, which has banned guns since the communist
revolution, has had murder rates several times higher than that of the
United States; even under the Communists, the Soviet Union's rate was
much higher.

Since the first news search was done additional news stories have been
added to Nexis:

There are thus now 218 unique stories, and a total of 294 stories counting
duplicates (the stories in yellow were duplicates): Excel file for
general overview and specific stories. Explicit mentions of defensive gun use
increase from 2 to 3 now.